rural education special education support services parental involvement school involvement highly qualified teachers
Abstract:
This paper explores six published articles, found through computer database searches and a hand-search of The Journal of Research in Rural Education, that examine the presence and effectiveness of support services for at-risk students in rural schools across the nation and world. Each of these studies identified a range of different support services that had a positive outcome on the achievement of special education students in rural school districts and how the lack of such services hindered student achievement. Three support services were prevalent throughout all six studies. These support services are the use of parental involvement, involvement in and connection between school and community activities, and the recruitment and support of highly qualified specialized teachers. This paper also discusses the implications for practice of each of these three support services in rural school districts.
